The karma of money

Money has karma

Money has karma? You bet. Money is born, has a life span, dies, and then is reincarnated. And even though "inanimate," it sometimes acts as if it has a life of its own. But like everything else, money does not exist as an independent entity. It is very much a projection of our own karma (and we of its) - very much a projection of what kind of people we are.

Economists speak of the "debasing of currency." If currency is debased, then so are we. I hope the following reflections will inspire similar re-evaluations on the nature of money and our relationship to it.

Fat lot of good gold did for 16^th century Spain

Gold is money, money is gold, right? Personally, I have no idea why this should be the case. In fact, gold has to be one of the most worthless things to come out of the ground. But for some reason, its scarcity managed to alchemically transform it into money (though not always into wealth).

According to Cecil Adams, even as Spain was amassing all of its New World gold and silver:

QUOTE:

For the latter part of the 1500s and on into the 1600s Spain was a debtor nation, spending more abroad than it took in. The result was a net outflow of gold and silver. Attempts were made to restrict the export of precious metals, but without much success. In the end it all simply dribbled away. The problem was that the conquest of the New World left Spain with a lot more money, but not that much more wealth... They didn't realize that until too late and suffered centuries of poverty as a consequence.

:UNQUOTE [http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/611/what-happened-to-all-the-gold-spain-got-from-the-new-world ]

With gold and silver abundantly in hand, it was easy for the Spaniards to buy manufactured products elsewhere, rather than develop their own industrial base. Maybe this point underscores a fundamental underpinning of wealth and money produced/obtained by any given society in any given time: behavior (in this case, laziness).

In other words, our money is a reflection of our character.

The character underlying true money: A story

Once upon a time, a loyal subject (Lo Li) appeared before his king to redeem a pledge. Ten years prior, Lo Li had performed an invaluable service for King Hi-Ness. So now Lo Li stood before his master, pleading a case for payment. Unfortunately, Lo had lost the Promissory Note his king had specially prepared, meant for redemption after the passage of ten years.

- Sire, it is with regret I inform you that I cannot produce the Promissory Note you'd issued to me, since it was lost at sea when I was shipwrecked five years ago.

- Good man, do you remember what the Promissory Note stated?

- Indeed, majesty. It stated that I could ask as payment anything in your kingdom, not to exceed certain dimensions, or 100,000 gold coins.

- Do you remember those "certain dimensions?"

- [Lo Li quoted them from memory.]

- Your memory in this matter matches my own. So even though you have no document as proof, you may claim your payment since my word is my bond.

- But what of the Note, your majesty? Without that, I have no legal basis to press for payment.

- The Note was but a truly secondary thing, actually a token meant to refresh your courage while waiting for its redemption, should hard times ever visit you.

- Great king, I express my profound admiration for your generosity - for without that Note I have no claim.

- Not so, Lo Li, for without your great services rendered one decade past, it is I who would have nothing. A piece of paper is superfluous to two gentlemen who have good memory as to its meaning.

- Very well then, gracious king, I ask for 100,000 gold coins as my payment.

- I regret to inform you, most loyal subject, that wars have depleted my treasury and I cannot conjure this amount. Can you propose an alternative?

- [Without a moment's hesitation.]Your one and only daughter, sire.

- She is but ten years old and cannot now make you a good wife.

- A wife I do not desire, since I had lost the only wife I could ever want many years ago to the plague. But the child we never had, that is the payment I now seek.

- [Without a moment's hesitation.] I know you as the epitome of honorable intentions, good sir, and will grant this request.

Know when to say when: Another story

Many years ago, I was hiking in a wild and deserted area, notably absent of humanity. I had expected to see many unusual things in this area, but had not expected to see the Accountant named Senor Age. He was sitting down, cross-legged, in the middle of a crossroads, dressed in a suit more properly seen at a business function.

He looked terrible.

Without waiting for me to ask, he told me his story starting with: "It's time to die.

"I am bankrupt, but I'm too honest to steal. So I came here simply to wait for death to overtake me."

"Why not seek assistance? Charity? A loan from friends? Anything but this?"

"Anything-but-this covers a lot of territory which I cannot visit, so here I sit and wait. As for charity, I've received quite enough of it in my life, so it should be given to others. As for loans, I've too many as it is, so I decided to draw the line and take no more."

"There will be Blood" - starring Daniel Day-Lewis

Back in 2007, I saw There will be Blood, which had this interesting exchange: A man commented on his own recently-ended incarceration for a crime he didn't commit:

"Well, I guess that's time spent for bad stuff I did, which I got away with, so I have no regrets" - or words to that effect.

I thought that was a remarkably Buddhist-like response, though this was by no means a saintly character. He was clever and weak, and had tried to lie his way into a rich man's confidence. I was very much uplifted when contemplating this mixed-bag of a human being. On one hand, he was like many people - who are weak, claim to have assets and connections they lack, and try to attach themselves parasitically to wealth. On the other hand, he had a sense of the poetic justice meted out as payment by an unforgiving universe.

Too bad he died the way he did, but he was too weak to profit from his sense of that poetic justice.

Reflecting once again on 16^th century Spain

An interesting question popped into my mind when I reflected on Spain's new found, New World wealth. You might call this question my "Spanish Inquisition:"

What would have happened if Spain had managed to dump all this new-found precious metal on the market all at once?

Of course, this is hypothetical, since Spain didn't snap its fingers causing all this "money" to appear immediately. It came to Spain over a period of decades, which provided enough time for this metal to ramp up inflation which diminished Spain's actual purchasing power.

But that's the point of my question. Suppose (somehow) the Spanish Crown managed to keep this discovery of New World treasure a secret long enough to acquire enough of it to distribute to agents who would fan out throughout Europe and (overnight) buy up all assets. This sudden appearance and expenditure of precious metal would have short-circuited any inflationary response.

But to that question, I follow with a better one:

Why should one party be able to buy up everything in sight quickly and thoroughly simply because it acquires a bonanza having nothing to do with the value of its labor or intelligent planning?

"My friend had a boat and I had not" or what is true wealth?

Years ago, a friend of a friend invited me for a boat ride on a small lake. Sounded like fun, so I said yes. We zipped around for an hour making waves, which crashed into other waves we'd made while going in circles. Later on, I thought: "I wonder if he enjoyed this ride anywhere near as much as I did?"

This is not an idle question. I do not hunger for material things and so did not spend my life trying to earn enough to acquire them. Nor had I been tempted to go into debt for this purpose. But it's not what I didn't do that's important here - it's what I did do: By dedicating my time (remember: time is money, but not in the way most people suppose) to my Buddhist practice, I gained a heightened sensitivity and appreciation for the commonplace.

For me, that ride was far more profound than it could have ever been for my benefactor. He simply did not have the eyes to see, or other senses to appreciate, this. One might say, his vision was fogged over by clouds of anxiety produced by what he had to sacrifice for that boat.

That boat ride wasn't in any way "necessary." The way I see things, all of my interactions with the physical world have acquired other dimensions. And the cool thing is, I'm not anybody special - anyone can acquire this richness, without having to go around digging for yellow stuff to "pay" for it.

What's over the horizon?

What will the future hold? How will concerns for money shape our future politics?

In answering these questions, keep several things in mind:

- The money you earn now (and manage to save) may or may not keep its value. Why should it?

- As long as financial stability can be assured, John Q. Public will not care at all about how that stability is achieved. As long as his 401K and other investments stay on track, he won't care about inequities which maintain his own security.

- Without honest and ethically-based financial and governmental structures, we will definitely be going to war to maintain our lifestyle.

- The money you invest in our current markets is, ultimately, inflationary and destructive. In order for you to get a decent return on your investments, your money managers will have to get much more than that on theirs. And so on up the "food chain." In order to obtain highest possible rates of return, mega institutions will become the agents of highest possible rates of exploitation.

Conclusion: I believe our current economic crisis will "force" G8 nations to collaborate with other major players to implement measures which will increase their control over market forces at the expense of your economic and political freedoms. Control is what it's all about, but that's a fixed commodity. The more control large institutions have, the less the little guy will have. That's the wave of the future.

Steven Searle for U.S. President in 2012

The Independent Contractors’ Party

“Unless we make a determination to vote for independents for Congress, this is exactly what we’ll end up losing – our independence" - Steve.